I can't post in the tech forum so hopefully someone here can help me. I made a really dumb mistake. After having pulled and cleaned my SSV valve, I was buttoning everything back up and crossed the positive and negative battery cables. The key was not in the ignition when I did this. Everything seems to work; lights, radio (blew the fuse and replaced it), seats, sunroof, etc., but when I try to start the engine, theirs just a relatively loud click and the starter doesn't turn over. So, am I seriously screwed? Did I fry something vital and expensive? I really don't know where to troubleshoot next and any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Try doing the 20 brake pedal stomp to reset the ESS.

 

Battery is shot, or the starter.

 

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-int...orrect-134321/

Heres a thread from a quick search I just did.. different situation but same problem.

If the starter is clicking, its at least receiving some power.. probably popped a fusible link/main fuse. I'm not sure if crossing the leads could ruin a battery. Sorry I cant help more, but check out the link.

 

Not the same problem, that thread ended with a bad solenoid, thus the starter wasn't even clicking.

 

Are you sure you checked all the fuses? There was a similar thread recently where the problem was (I think) the room fuse. Anyway, check all of the fuses.

I doubt if you killed the battery or the starter....blowing either of those would have been a pretty spectacular event

Ken

 

I've had a similar clicking problem, but for me it always ended up being a bad connection at the battery. AKA I had to clean the connectors with coke!

 

Op, you have 2 fuse banks, one under the hood, one near the clutch pedal. You need to check every fuse in both, plus every relay in the hood box.

If still no-go, charge up the battery off the car.
If still no-go, replace the battery if it isn't outputting voltage correctly
Then move to the starter.

The worst case scenario you are looking at here is a fried ecu, since they aren't designed to have current run through them backward. There are no fuses between the ecu and ground, so pushing current backwards and blowing a fuse means that the ecu saw that load (or more since there are many routes) before the fuses started blowing.

Start with the small stuff though, maybe you got lucky.

But you didn't cross the cables did you? Not really the same problem then.